GHeavenRubberBandMan

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Hello, GHeavenRubberBandMan, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article. Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

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One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, visit the Teahouse, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{Help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! AntiDionysius (talk) 21:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello AntiDionysius.

James here. George Heaven, the man who built this plane, is dusting off this project after garaging it for 20 years and has asked me to add pictures and correct some numbers that are and have always been incorrect. I jumped in and made the edits. I was not aware that this had to go through official channels. I thought Wikipedia was written by and read by all people.

Since I have misstepped, what do I need to do to make sure the correct information is preserved in the latest round of edits? We plan to do many more in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. GHeavenRubberBandMan (talk) 22:02, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello James,

Paul here, my Wikipedia user name is Aerohydro and I created the Rubber Bandit article. Really pleased that you've added the images, etc, to the page. It's quite exciting that George is resurrecting the project. 🙂

Regarding AnitDionysious' post, the advice given in those links is quite useful. There are a couple of specific action points which you may want to consider doing:

First is to change your username. At the moment, it's easy to assume that it belongs to George Heaven himself, even though it doesn't. You could ask a Wikipedia Administrator to change your username, or you could simply create a new account, using a different name.

Second is to place a Conflict of Interest banner at the top of your Userpage. Just cut-and-paste the coding given at this User COI template and perhaps add in some detail as to your connection to this project. Generally, if you're close to the subject matter being worked on, and your edits help to improve the article (such as the ones you've already done, have), then that will be well-received.

All the best, Paul

Aerohydro (talk) 07:04, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply, Paul.

George and I are working on this together in real time. The account is his (and tied to his email), but I am making edits from my computer while he reads them to me on the speakerphone.

If that is the case, do we still need to change the username? Should I create my own account?

Your other points are clear and understood.

I am curious though... how does the volunteer community of content editors and creators verify that I am who I say and I have the real data? The Wikipedia article has a stat of 18 hp, corroborated by several other articles on the internet. But George has his own physical spec sheet that says 11 hp.

How do you verify this?

Just curious.

Have a great day.

-James GHeavenRubberBandMan (talk) 18:52, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

I got the messages you left me. However, you appear to be "sharing" a Wikipedia account, which is strictly prohibited. Only one person may have access to a given account. Please log out, create a new account for yourself, and have George change the password to the GHeavenRubberBandMan account. Once that has been done, I will be happy to answer your questions. Best, HouseBlaster (talk · he/they) 21:16, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello James,

Thanks for clarifying the arrangement. Yes, you should create your own account, and put in a COI (Conflict of Interest) banner when you do so. Wikipedia edits that you are physically doing, should be done using your own account.

Regarding the matter of the specs, Wikipedia is very keen that any material used for an article is able to be sourced outside of Wikipedia. That is, that there's a third party source which can be accessed, and used as a reference in an article.

In this situation, the best approach may that if the actual specs for the Rubber Bandit can be published on the net somehow; perhaps if the rubberbandit.org website is made live again, or posted onto a suitable forum (not a social media account), then that can be used a reference when updating the article.

One of the quirks of Wikipedia is that, although it relies on editors doing things in good faith, it also doesn't take them at their word, hence the need to use 'outside' sources as references.

Cheers, Paul

02:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC) Aerohydro (talk) 02:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC)